You shouldn't really like UCLA.
You shouldn't be cozying up to Brigham Young, either.
After you watched UF toy with Hawaii in week one, perhaps you caught a glimpse of Tennessee losing 27-24 to that upstart UCLA team.
Then, for you scoreboard watchers, you saw how BYU make the Bruins look like a Division-II stepping stone.
So, then, by logical conclusion you'd have to assume the Volunteers, who are still unranked, would lose handily to the Cougars and would get even more humbled this weekend against the Gators.
There's a reason why Mom and Dad told you never to assume.
This Tennessee team has 39 reasons to be mad. Or maybe it's 59 reasons, depending on how you look at it. Either way, the Volunteers have been letting a 59-20 embarrassment brood in their gut for a year now. And that makes for some very, ahem, upset football players - many who are every bit as talented as the ones the Gators have. UF should win this game and probably will. If you start discounting intangibles, however, then you're discounting what makes sports so captivating.
Intangibles are what caused UF to lose its bowl game to Michigan in January. The Gators ran into a Wolverines team who was playing for its coach in his final game, and the Gators didn't have the emotional desire to stay with the Wolverines.
Georgia having a dance-off in UF's end zone last year after its first score didn't give the Gators the ultimate confidence either.
Last season, according to UF linebacker Brandon Spikes, Tennessee "kind of gave up" and "quit playing." Spikes said former Gator tight end and special teams player Derek Baldry had a Volunteers player tell him he wasn't even going to rush him at all on a UF extra point.
Sure, that helped last year. But not now.
"I know they are going to be pretty jacked up," Spikes said.
Considering Tennessee still has high-level talent, that's not a good thought for the Gators. They have more talent, but they will also have more than 90,000 people telling them to go stick their. …OK, that's too R-rated, sorry.
Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer doesn't have the motivational tools he used to, but it won't be a hard sell this weekend. Nobody is expecting you to win. In fact, most probably think the Volunteers would have a moral victory if they lose by single digits. Pundits have even said Tennessee could easily start out the season 2-4.
Yes, it looks like a fall from grace for the Volunteers. And, yes, this is exactly the perfect place for an upset.
